‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 1 Spoilers: 6 Things To Know About Hulu’s Next Big TV Show

Your new TV obsession is coming out Wednesday. “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the highly anticipated Hulu drama, will premiere, but you should know a few things about the Elisabeth Moss-led TV show before you jump in.

Mini-Binge Premiere: Unlike Netflix, Hulu drops an episode per week. However, for the “Handmaid’s Tale” premiere, Hulu will release the first three episodes of the series. Three hours of story will be more than enough to have you counting down the minutes to the next episode.

Dystopia: The drama is set in the fictional Republic of Gilead, which used to be the U.S., in the not too far off future. A religious sect has taken over the government and decided that women are not equals. They can’t work or own property. If they’re one of the few with the ability to have kids, they become “Handmaids,” which is a nice name for sex slaves. Handmaids are basically owned by men with barren wives. Women even lose their names to their rapists. Moss’ character is given the name Offred, literally meaning “of Fred.”

READ: Is “The Handmaid’s Tale” Worth The Hulu Subscription?

Flashbacks: What makes the show scary is the flashbacks. Offred lived a normal life that anyone in the 21st century can recognize. The glimpses into the past show how Gilead came to be and the kind of life that was taken from Offred.

Cast: The former “Mad Men” actress is surrounded by all-stars in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” “Orange is the New Black” alum Samira Wiley plays her best friend Moira, and “Gilmore Girls” star Alexis Bledel plays Ofglen, a lesbian handmaid (being gay is a big offense in Gilead). Former “Chuck” star Yvonne Strahovski takes a dark turn as Serena Joy, the Commander’s wife, and “AHS” alum Joseph Fiennes plays Fred, the Commander trying to get Offred pregnant.

Book: The story of “The Handmaid’s Tale” might look familiar because it’s a bestselling novel. Margaret Atwood’s 1985 book has sold millions of copies, and the writers let her be very involved in the series. She even makes a cameo appearance as an Aunt (a woman in charge of handmaids) in the Hulu TV show.

“Actually, the Aunt [she was playing] was going to slap somebody else, and we were like, ‘No, she can slap Offred!'” director Reed Morano recalled at a Tribeca Film Festival screening (via Entertainment Weekly). “She didn’t want to and then Lizzie was like, ‘No, really hit me.'”

Changes: Like all adaptations, changes were made. The series wrote in Serena Joy as younger and more jealous of Offred to create more tension. The Hulu writers also decided not to ship off all the non-white characters to the Midwest. “What’s the difference between making a TV show about racists and making a racist TV show? Why would we be covering [the story of Offred], rather than telling the story of the people of color who got sent off to Nebraska?” showrunner Bruce Miller asked TVLine in January.

The first three episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 1 premiere Wednesday, April 26 on Hulu.